Beags/TH
Totally agree with your comments about IiP - complete waste of money.
Ref 6 Sigma - I am afraid i disagree. Since leaving the RAF several years ago, I have worked in a couple of companies (my current one included) where 6 sigma has generated genuine and significant savings in the right places without reducing our performance. 6 Sigma was, as I am sure you know, the brainchild of Jack Welch at GE - a genuinely world class company. Given the Services propensity to consistently over spend on a meagre budget, 6 sigma may be a useful tool.
"Well, actually it just means that a 'six sigma' organisation will strive to please all its customers (or technically 99.9997% of them) rather than just most of them (50.0001%)."
Not true - 6 sigma is about consistent processes/acceptable risk and reducing errors.